Automatic engineer&#39;s signal.



I. L. EDWARDS. AUTOMATIC ENGINEERS SIGNAL.

APPLIGATION FILED $EPT. 13, 1912.

Patented May 5, 1914.

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ISAAC L. EDWARDS, OF AURORA, ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATIC ENGINEERS SIGNAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 5, 1914.

Application filed September 13, 1912. Serial No. 720,109,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, Isaac L. EowARns, of Aurora, in the county of Kane, and in the State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Automatic Engineers Signals, and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

As is well known many serious railroad accidents are due to inattention of the engineer, either excusable or otherwise, and the object of my invention is to provide a very simple and wholly eflicient automatic device that will be a check upon the engineer to the extent that he is warned thereby, either by an audible or a visual signal, or both, and that causes the application of the brakes; and a further object is to automatically blow the whistle on the approach of crossings, and to such ends my invention consists in the automatic signahoperating device constructed substantially as hereinafter specified and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings-Figure 1 is a side view, in the nature of a diagram, of enough of a locomotive, and a portion of track, to illustrate my invention; Fig. 2 is a detail view in perspective of the automaticallyoperated lever and its support.

Briefly described, my invention comprehends one or more movable devices mounted between the track rails, or adjacent thereto, and movable into and out of position by the signal operator, and a device including a movable finger, or lever, mounted on the 10- comotiveby the" movement of which finger, or lever, a circuit is automatically closed, or opened, which circuit includes a bell and a lamp, and which finger, or lever also is connected with the whistle blowing lever and an air pipe valve, so that all these safety instrumentalities may be simultaneously operated.

As shown in the drawings, the movable device mounted between the track rails is in the form of a plate 10 horizontally supported upon a pair of crank arms 11 carried by roe-k shafts 12 from one of which a connection is made to the signal operator so that at will the signal operator may raise the plate into operating position or depress it where it will be inactive upon the cooperating finger, or lever, mounted on or carried by the locomotive. The plates 10 are used in such number and placed at such points along the track as may be found desirable. The finger, or

movable arm, which is engaged by the plate 10, when the latter is elevated, is in the form of a pivoted arm or lever 13, which at one end is pivoted to the lower end of a bracket bar 141 rigidly bolted to the locomotive frame, and at its other end carries an antifraction roller 15' which engages the plate 10 and rides easily over the latter. The finger or lever 13, normally, or in its inactive position, inclines downwardly and rearwardly from the point of its pivotal connection to the bracket bar, and it is yieldingly held in such position by a stiff spring 16 secured to the forward side of the bracket bar and which bears upon a forward extension or tail 17 of the finger or lever 13. Upon contact with the raised or elevated plate 10, the finger or lever 13 is rocked upward.

Attached to the-lever 13 is a spring contact 18, which, when the lever is rocked upward, is made to touch a stationarycontact 19, which is secured by screws to the bracket arm, which is insulated therefrom, and from said stationary contact an insulated conducting wire 20 is carried through a hole in the upper part of the bracket bar and emerges from a tube 21 extending upward from the top thereof, while to a binding post 22 passing through, but insulated from the stationary contact 19, but electrically connected with the bracket bar, is attached an insulated wire terminal 23 that also passes through the same hole and tube, and these wires are part of a circuit which includes a storage battery carried by the tender of the locomotive, preferably, an electric bell 24, and an electric lamp 25, giving a red light, the bell and lamp being mounted on the engineers side of the cab so that they are in position to make sure that the Warning is given the engineer by both bell and lamp, when both are used. It will be seen that the bracket bar and the arm 13 constitute a part of the circuit and the rubbing of the contact carried by the lever 13 against the stationary contact 19, is bound to maintain the contact ing surfaces in bright and good electric contact making condition.

The finger or arm 13 has an upwardly projecting lug 26 by which itis connected to the air valve so that when the arm or finger 13 is moved upward the brakes may be applied and by which it is connected with the whistle lever in the cab so that the whistle may be automatically sounded.

It will be observed that I expose to the weather no devices whose operation can be injuriously affected. All the parts of my mechanisms are carried by the locomotive and housed and protected thereby, excepting the track plate 10, and evidently its opera tion is in no Wise impaired by its exposed out of doors location.

Having thus described my invention What I claim is In a safety device, the combination of a vertical bracket bar adapted to be secured to a locomotive frame, alever pivoted at one end to the lower end of said bracket bar, and thence extending so that its free end can cooperate with a device on the road bed, a spring yieldingly holding said lever in position to engage the road bed device, said spring being secured to one side of the bracket and with its free end bearing upon an extension of the lever beyond its pivot, a contact stationarily mounted on the bracket bar, consisting of a finger that extends upward toward the contact on the bracket bar, a binding post passing through said stationary contact and having electrical contact With the bracket bar, Wire terminals connected, respectively, to said stationary contact and to said binding post and passing thence through an opening in the bracket bar, a contact carried by said lever, said contact consisting of a finger that extends upward toward the contact on the bracket bar, a source of current, and a signal on the locomotive With which said Wire terminals are electrically connected.

In testimony that 1 claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand.

ISAAC L. EDlVEtRDS.

\Yit-nesses CriAs. J. NiLLniMsoN, deems H. Mann.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

